Sam, better than not having any option at all on the disc front as I am NOT a fan of streaming stuff and I'm old-school who values watching these shows through traditional means still, so let's be thankful the studio woke up and took the fans' comments to heart.

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I agree, but it does feel like a half-step backwards. Nevertheless, I will support the new releases.

Sam, it took them long enough to know what they did was wrong to start with by ceasing these releases, but I guess better late than never and hoping Season 19 makes it out before spring 2018 but it's a step in the right direction for this franchise and not everyone streams stuff out.

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Streaming is good as a supplement, or if you don't want to own something.

But Fox tried to force people to pay them every month for access to Simpsons episodes, and cut off the legal avenue to own them. The DVDs were still profitable and decent sellers, but they decided they would rather drain people monthly for something they couldn't own instead of get X amount of sales off of DVDs.

I'm guessing it didn't work out like they planned, or some beancounter looked at the projected DVD sales vs. the streaming subscribers and wondered why they left money on the table when the two formats could have coexisted peacefully without pissing people off and making them say "well, f**k Fox, they won't release DVDs, I won't subscribe to streaming".

Oh, and unless Fox learned really big lesson, I wouldn't expect S19 (if it comes at all) before December 2018. Doesn't matter that the commentaries are done, I just don't expect them to release more than one season a year, as usual.

While I'm not a fan of this show, I think it's wonderful that Fox has had to back down and reverse its ridiculous "no more discs; it's streaming or nothing" approach to the series. Congrats to all of the fans!

Hopefully this will get the ball rolling on other "stalled" series. Streaming on sites that let you do so for free (such as YouTube) is a good way to check out a show you have a hankering to get. If you like what you see you go out and buy it. If it's not as you expected it then you just move along.

Oh, and unless Fox learned really big lesson, I wouldn't expect S19 (if it comes at all) before December 2018. Doesn't matter that the commentaries are done, I just don't expect them to release more than one season a year, as usual.

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(On a tangent).

At this point, Fox seems to have lost much of the long term control on the pricing of their products. It seems like their stuff ends up as dump bin fodder relatively quickly. (Similar story with Warner, Universal, Paramount, etc ...). As a recent example, I picked up the Family Guy season 14 set for $6 from a local dump bin. (It was originally released this past December 2016).

Disney seems to be one of the few exceptions, where they still have some long term control over the pricing of their products. For example, such as some of the Star Wars titles maintaining their sky high first-week prices for many years. I strongly suspect this is one reason why Disney is still willing to fight against amazon, in their recent feud. (Star Trek no longer has this luxury of maintaining sky high prices for many years, for the franchise's tv season sets).

In regard to The Simpsons, I suspect future releases after season 20 will probably be dependent on how much revenue Fox can get before the seasons 18 and 19 season sets end up as dump bin fodder (within a year or two).

If Fox doesn't bother releasing seasons 21+ for whatever reasons, lets hope that they outsource it to Kino-Lorber or Olive on bluray.

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(This is purely uninformed wild speculation, as a rambling rant.)

With Olive releasing Flipper seasons 1 and 2 on bluray soon, and Kino-Lorber releasing The Outer Limits on bluray at the end of this year, I'm guessing these could be two "test cases" for Fox/MGM to see how well these two smaller companies can handle tv on bluray season sets.

If I had to guess, Kino-Lorber seems to put a lot of effort into their releases (ie. extras, etc ...). I don't have many releases by Kino-Lorber, but the ones I do have (ie. Metropolis) seem to be semi-Criterion quality.

If the revenue from the Simpsons seasons 18 and 19 dvd sets don't live up to Fox's expectations, and Kino-Lorber do a good job with The Outer Limits bluray sets, then perhaps Kino-Lorber might possibly do a high quality presentation for (hypothetical) seasons 21+ of The Simpsons on bluray.

At this point I have no idea how Olive would approach doing The Simpsons on dvd/bluray. (ie. Will they just be "bare bones" bluray releases?)

With Olive releasing Flipper seasons 1 and 2 on bluray soon, and Kino-Lorber releasing The Outer Limits on bluray at the end of this year, I'm guessing these could be two "test cases" for Fox/MGM to see how well these two smaller companies can handle tv on bluray season sets.

If I had to guess, Kino-Lorber seems to put a lot of effort into their releases (ie. extras, etc ...). I don't have many releases by Kino-Lorber, but the ones I do have (ie. Metropolis) seem to be semi-Criterion quality.

If the revenue from the Simpsons seasons 18 and 19 dvd sets don't live up to Fox's expectations, and Kino-Lorber do a good job with The Outer Limits bluray sets, then perhaps Kino-Lorber might possibly do a high quality presentation for (hypothetical) seasons 21+ of The Simpsons on bluray.

At this point I have no idea how Olive would approach doing The Simpsons on dvd/bluray. (ie. Will they just be "bare bones" bluray releases?)

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Personally, I have extreme doubts that Fox would license out its flagship series.